The star singer returns with her first solo LP since 2020, and it’s full of typically irresistible hooks and her signature sense of drama.

For those who have wanted the old Gaga back, her new album is a nostalgia trip that completes the journey after the 2020’s pandemic-plagued “Chromatica.”

Gaga didn’t really mythologize “Mayhem,” her seventh album, or its music, in the lead-up to its release. “I actually made the effort [while] making ‘Mayhem’ to not do that and not try to give my music an outfit,